The retractable roof was closed for all three games during the Texas Rangers’ season-opening series, yet there was a steady breeze blowing through Minute Maid Park.

The air was moved frequently by Houston Astros hitters, whose bats swung through pitches at an alarming rate.

The trend continued Wednesday in a 4-0 victory in which the Rangers set a major league record for the most strikeouts by a pitching staff in its first three games of the season.

Alexi Ogando struck out a career-high 10 in 6 1/3 innings, and Joe Nathan struck out the side in the ninth to give the Rangers 43 strikeouts in the series and break the mark held by the 1966 Cleveland Indians.

The mix of quality Rangers pitching and an overmatched Astros lineup led not only to the record, but also to back-to-back shutouts and a series win for the Rangers after an Opening Day loss.

“They’re young, they’re aggressive, and I don’t know how much of what they saw last night of Yu Darvish they’d ever seen,” manager Ron Washington said. “Today, Ogando is known for striking out guys. He has a good fastball and a tremendous slider, and now he’s got a changeup and a curveball to go with all of that.”

Lance Berkman had an RBI double in a three-run eighth inning to help break open a pitchers’ duel between Ogando and Philip Humber. The Rangers held a 1-0 lead when Ogando was removed, and Robbie Ross, Tanner Scheppers, Michael Kirkman and Nathan finished off the five-hitter.

The strikeout became an integral part of the game in the first inning after leadoff man Jose Altuve doubled off Ogando and went to third with one out. Ogando, though, struck out Chris Carter and Carlos Pena to end the threat, and the Astros had only two runners advance to second base the rest of the game.

Ogando knew he needed to strike out Carter to escape the early jam, and he got what he wanted.

“I just focused on throwing quality pitches, and I wanted to strike them out,” he said. “I focused on my pitches and got good results.”